The hype around Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and seeing people want Banjo & Kazooie playable made me want to revisit the first two games. I'm in the middle of replaying Tooie, but replaying Banjo-Kazooie reminded me of how I not only love these games, but that the first one might just be one of my favorite games of all time. Because of this, I decided to look up some analysis videos to see not only if people held that same opinion, but what about these games makes them so great. These videos by one Joshua "Veegie" Balanuik are the first I encountered and they're pretty insightful; while a lot of what he says can be subjective, particularly where Banjo-Tooie is concerned, when it comes to Banjo-Kazooie he gives some pretty thorough reasons for what made it such an effective game in the first place. I decided to share these videos here, maybe in the hopes Playtonic might watch them and help them relearn some things they may have overlooked or forgotten about when it came to the original Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie... Also, Veegie intends to do a review/analysis of Donkey Kong 64, but it's taking a backseat to another project he's working on, or at least, that's what he told me when I messaged him on Twitter. I'll edit this original post when those videos finally come out.

Speaking for myself, while I don't agree with everything this guy says, particularly with some of his remarks in Banjo-Tooie, I feel like his criticisms are fair and are at least worth consideration when it comes to new games within the 3D platforming collect-a-thon genre.